

Article 10816 of soc.culture.china:
Path: bsu-cs!iuvax!uxc!tank!mimsy!yuan
>From: [email-masked] (Xiaoping Yuan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Passport Problem (Question & Answer: Dr. Wang's Case)
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Date: 23 Jan 89 16:20:41 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Xiaoping Yuan)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 59
Keyword: International Refugee Passport

=================== Information from My Friend =================

Question:
^^^^^^^^

	One article raised my attention in newspaper, World Journal. Wang
Bin-Zhang went to the PRC consulate in New York to apply for a visa to visit 
his daughter and brothers (sisters) in China.

	He is now holding a "International Refugee Passport", which was
announced invalid by a PRC consulate official. His visa application was 
rejected. He claimed that he will hold a PRC passport if the consulate
agrees to give an extension.

	BTW, does any body know what the "International Refugee Passport"
is, and how it functions.

-Xiaoping
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answer from my friend:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

To the best of my knowledge, the International Refugee Passport is jointly
issued by the Refugee Organization of the United Nations and the countries
who accept the refugees so that they are able to travel around even in the
refugee status and return to the countries accepted them after their trips.
Theoretically, the bearers of the International Refugee Passport are treated
as if they have no citizenship of any country and they are protected by UN.
It functions like the US "White Book" (see the answer to your last question)
and is an acceptable international travel document to most countries.

If one is a refugee, especially a political refugee, his/her home country is
generally not happy with him/her.  If the country issues entry visa to her own
political refugees on their International Refugee Passport, the issuance means
(at least implies) the official confession of previous mis-treatment to the
refugees and admission of the refugees' status.  In addition, the their home
country will hesitate to take any action against the bearers of the IR Passport
because they are protected by UN.

So, no wonder that PRC consulate refused to issue an entry visa on Dr. Wang Bin
Zhang's IR Passport.

It is also quite obvious that why Chinese consulate didn't renew Dr. Wang's PRC
passport.  PRC requires that Dr. Wang give up his present political attitude 
and belief as a precondition to renew his PRC passport.  But Dr. Wang declare
that as soon as he is allowed to return to PRC and given the freedom of speech
there, he will do his best for a better future of China and her people.  It is
said just for this reason, he hasn't applied for Canadian citizenship even 
though he is eligible for that (his wife is a Canadian citizen immigrating from
Taiwan).

It is not explicitly specified about how to treat Dr. Wang's and Mr. Hu Ping's
case in the PRC Citizen Exit/Entry Control Code.  The PRC officials just enjoy
the vagueness of the Code and interpret the Code "flexibly" but probably not
reasonably.

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